Downloading:
The
first thing you will notice about Lubuntu is that unlike most distros
that have to cram every megabyte they can into their LiveCDs, the
Lubuntu ISO download is only 521 megs. The ISO loaded right up onto my
USB drive thanks to unetbootin and I was soon installing Lubuntu on my tablet.
Installation:
The
installation of Lubuntu is decently standard. It is the same installer
Ubuntu uses. It provides the option to install along side an existing
operating, using the entire drive, or setting up a custom layout - all
using gParted. About ten minutes later I had Lubuntu up and running on
my hardware (I love USB installations).
Also if
you already have some form of *buntu 10.04 installed on your computer
you can add an LXDE/Lubuntu install by installing the lubuntu-desktop package via apt.
Look and Feel:
Lubuntu's
default theme is a sleek looking blue that blends well with the
Chromium and PCMan icons that are on the task bar by default. Those
migrating to Lubuntu from Windows will also feel at home in the LXDE
desktop due to the positioning of the main menu in the lower left and
the tray icon in the lower right.
Lubuntu lacks the flair of Compiz or E17, but this is by design. It's goal is to be a fast, lightweight operating system.
Software:
I
really like the default software the Lubuntu team has chosen to
include. The first thing you will notice is that the stock webrowser is
Chromium, this is a change I think we will be seeing a lot more in
light-weight distros. Don't get me wrong - I like firefox, but compared
to Chromium it is a snail at best (and a bit of a resource hog). Pidgin
is the default messaging client, xchat is included for IRC usage, and
transmission is there for all of your torrenting needs.
In
respect to office software Lubuntu ships with abiword for word
processing and gnumeric for creating spreadsheets, a refreshing change
from the bloated OpenOffice that ships with most distros by default. In
terms of media Lubuntu comes stock with Gnome MPlayer (my favorite media
player), Cheese Webcam booth, Aqualung, and Xfburn.
For
system tools the Lubuntu team has taken their pick of various gnome and
xfce applications. From Gnome Lubuntu uses their sound applet, wifi
applet, gdebi, and power manager. From xfce comes the task-manager and
pyneighborhood (network browser).
In the
means of terminal Lubuntu comes with LXTerminal. A nice extra that is
included in Lubuntu by default is a copy and paste manager
"parcellite"that is very similar to the KDE "klipper" tool. I'm glad
that this is included as klipper is typically one of the first things I
install on any non-KDE distro I use. Parcellite is not loaded at startup
though, you will find it under accessories in your menu. While not as
powerful as Gnome's gedit, but sticking with the lightweight theme,
Lubuntu comes with leafpad as the default text editor. Also in a default
Lubuntu install for graphics editing is "mtPaint", a basic image
editor.
Memory Footprint:
On my system with out any applications loaded Lubuntu is using just over 125megs of RAM. Not too shabby :)
Issues:
The
only real "issue" I see with Lubuntu is the fact that the LXDE desktop
does not support volume up/down/mute function keys on laptops by
default. This is easily solved by mapping them using xbindkeys - but
this is something most new user will not want to do.
Final Thoughts:
Lubuntu
has come a long way from it's first release with 9.10 just last year.
This 10.04 release is a fantastic addition to the world of light weight
Linux distros and just like the others in the *buntu family I have no
doubt it will adopted by many for use on slower/older computers.
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